Paris with Sarah, Part One

So my younger sister Sarah is a senior in college, and she decided to spend her Christmas break with us here in Europe - her first trip out of North America. So, the next few posts will be a little discombobulated, as I'll try to just do one covering all of her time in London, but then separate posts for each of the trips we took together.

She arrived in London on Thursday morning the 17th, and we turned around bright and early the next day to head off to Paris.

Friday, December 18th

We were a little late in booking our Eurostar tickets considering it was Christmas, so in order to get the cheapest ticket, we had to take the 5:25am train, which meant a 4am cab, so that was not a fun start, especially for our jet-lagged companion. As it turns out it was good that we caught this train, because later in the day snow storms completely closed down the tunnel under the English Channel, and we were one of the few trains that wasn't cancelled. Not to say we weren't affected...but you'll have to wait for that.

We headed straight off to see the city after dropping the bags at the hotel. Our first stop was to the Ile de la Cite, the small island in the middle of the Seine River that is home to Notre Dame Cathedral and Sainte Chapelle.

We went through Notre Dame first, which was very nice all dressed up for Christmas. There was a large tree out front, which from some angles looked a little sickly but was magnificent from others. We also checked out the much acclaimed Nativity scene, where we learned that in many European countries, including France, it is customary to leave Jesus out of the scene until Christmas day. It makes complete sense, but it was still a little odd to see Mary and Joseph kneeling over the empty manger. We oohhed and aahhed at the rose windows and marvelled outside at the flying buttresses and gargoyles, and tried to take a moment to soak in the fact that this thing was built 400 years before Columbus even landed in the Americas. Incredible.

Our next stop was nearby Sainte Chapelle, a site that Jenna and I missed on our last trip because it wasn't covered in our Top 10 book (which is why we now always travel with our friend Rick). This is a small chapel built as a place to house the supposed crown of thorns that was purchased by the king in the 1200s. Supposedly the cost of the crown, which is now in Notre Dame and only displayed one day per year, was significantly more than the cost of the entire chapel. The chapel was incredible, and we couldn't believe we missed out before. It is very small, but is completely surrounded by beautiful stained glass. There was some restoration work going on (of course!!), but even so our minds were blown by how incredible the place was with the light coming through these beautiful windows.

We left Sainte Chapelle in the early afternoon, and had some time to kill before our planned trip to the Louvre, which is cheaper on Friday nights. We decided that the extra time would be best spent across the river from the Louvre, at the Musee D'Orsay. This is the art museum that holds Jenna's favorite - the Impressionists. We spent quite a bit of time here taking in the Monet's, Renoir's, and Van Gogh's, and once again being impressed with the building itself - a converted train station.

It was about 5:00 when we finished the museum, which was going to give us plenty of time to get over to the Louvre for its 6:00 evening (ie, cheaper) opening time. While discussing the plan for what to do before heading over there, we noticed that Sarah was pretty much ready to topple over from exhaustion. Apparently the mix of transatlantic flight, 4am cab, and several miles of walking through cold and snowy Paris was enough to knock her out. We quickly realized that the largest museum in the world probably wasn't the best decision, so instead we all decided to call it an early night, and after a great dinner of crepes near our hotel, we headed off to bed.

Saturday, December 19th

This day was completely slotted aside for Versailles Palace. They say that it takes a full day to travel out there and see everything. Of course, "they" usually don't travel with us, and they also probably don't factor in one of the main attractions - the gardens - being closed for snow. We were done there by lunch time (although that in no way is meant to reflect poorly on the palace).

Versailles is THE European palace. When all the other monarchs built their homes, it was with Versailles in mind. This is the opulent and magnificent home built by the self-proclaimed Sun King Louis XIV during his 72 year reign. He moved the government from Paris to this retreat just outside the city, and it was built to the grandest scale. It is really no surprise that when the people were starving, they decided that maybe they didn't like the fact that the king lived such an opulent lifestyle. Just 100 years after the palace was completed the people overthrew the government in the French Revolution.

The place was completely enormous. To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if they had created that word just to describe Versailles. The place was big enough to literally house the entire French government. The gardens themselves cover more than 3 square miles - It is more than 2 miles from the "back door" of the palace to the back of the garden. In fact, hidden away in the back of the gardens is another smaller palace that was built as a "getaway" when the royals needed a break from the main palace!! The gardens are also where they have most of the 600ish fountains that the palace is so famous for. Unfortunately, since it had been extra snowy in Europe, we could only admire the gardens from the inside - guess this gives us a reason to go back!

The inside was incredible as well. Everything you would want and expect in your house if you were the King of France. Gold everything, tons of statues and paintings, etc, etc. The highlight, as everyone probably says, was the Hall of Mirrors, the same room where the Treaty of Versailles was signed. Big surprise, it is a long hall lined with mirrors. It is also full of statues and chandeliers and beautifully painted ceilings with views out into the gardens. In all an incredible site and we were really glad that we had the opportunity to go out there.

Since the gardens were closed at Versailles, we got back to Paris fairly early and had time to make it to the Orangerie. This museum was at one time a greenhouse in the middle of Paris where they grew orange trees. It was converted to a museum, and designed specifically to display Monet's giant water lily paintings. There are several displays of impressionist art in the basement, but the main floor is all about these water lilies. There are two oval shaped rooms that have only these 8 paintings in them, which are all done to a grand scale and were painted at Monet's retreat of Giverny outside Paris (a place we hope to see this Spring).

After leaving the Orangerie, we headed up the nearby Champs Elysees toward the Arc de Triomphe. We were excited to walk up the world's most famous avenue because we'd heard that they turn most of it into an outdoor Christmas market for this time of the year. The street was lined with stalls, although we were a little disappointed that they were selling mostly tourist merchandise and things like scarves and berets. Apparently there is a big difference when they label something as a "German" Christmas Market, which has more of the stuff we love like ornaments and wood carvings and generally festive items.

We made it all the way up the avenue, stopping once to warm up with some hot chocolate, and got to the Arc de Triomphe just after sunset. Jenna and Sarah spent time walking around it, while I took the opportunity to go to the top (they couldn't be bothered with the 287 stairs). The views from above were amazing - the Champs Elysees with all of its Christmas lights turned on, the Eiffel Tower, and off in the distance the Sacre Couer up on the hill. It really was a beautiful site and I was really glad I went up (although my calves were not too pleased).

Next on our list was a Seine River cruise. Mom and her friend had done a big expensive dinner cruise when they came here a few months earlier and loved it. We opted for the much cheaper non-dinner quickie tour, but it was still nice. It started right beneath the Eiffel Tower and took you all the way up past the Notre Dame. If you're not quite up to speed on your Paris geography, that covers pretty much the entire main downtown area of the city. It gave little bits of history and facts about the city and the sites, and was generally a good way to spend the evening.

By the time we'd finished it was about time to eat, so we headed back toward the hotel and grabbed dinner at a nearby French restaurant, where Sarah got to try escargot (snails) for the first time. We were glad to see that she was so willing to step and out try the local cuisine even though it seems pretty gross, and as it turned out she did like it, so even better!

Sunday, December 20th

We started Sunday at a few places near our hotel in the Rue Cler area - the Rodin Museum and Napoleon's Tomb. We had bought a museum pass that let us in to most of the Paris museums for free, and these were on the list. Otherwise probably wouldn't have gone, but since it was free we thought it would be worth it.

Rodin is a sculptor (of The Thinker fame), supposedly the best since Michelangelo. We'd seen some of his stuff scattered around Europe before. The museum was nice, but I think we realized that either the "best since" statement was completely false, or there just haven't been that many good sculptors in the last 500 years. His stuff is good, but mostly kind of rough images as opposed to reality. This probably has something to do with the fact that he was around at the same time as the impressionists. We also thought that there were a lot of similarities in his works - lots of lovers merged together with the stone. I was glad we went because I do prefer sculpture to other art forms, but I think it was good that we got in for free.

The next stop was just a stone's throw away to Napoleon's Tomb. There is this huge building called Hotel d'Invalides that was built as a place for wounded soldiers to live. It is a magnificent building just off the Seine right in the middle of town. The church (with a giant gold-covered dome) that was attached to the Invalides was converted into a final resting place for the Emperor. There wasn't really much to see here other than the enormous tomb. Apparently there is also a military museum here (hence the free entrance with our pass), but we didn't care too much about that.

We were impressed with the tomb - probably the biggest that we've ever seen. We knew he was a short man with a big ego, so we figured he must have just been trying to make up for his small stature. I've since learned, though, that he was originally buried in a small tomb on the island where he was exiled, and was moved here many years later. I guess the grandeur of the place is supposed to be reminiscent of his empire. The place was pretty cool, but we only spent about 30 minutes there before heading on our way.

After a quick cafe lunch, we headed off to spend the afternoon at the Louvre. Sarah isn't huge on museums, and since we'd been before we knew we didn't need to spend a ton of time here. We forced Sarah to see a few of the major things - Venus di Milo, Mona Lisa, Winged Victory of Samothrace etc. She didn't care too much about anything else, so we wandered around a bit, marvelling at the building and some of the art before heading off.

Our next stop was the Eiffel Tower. Since our hotel was nearby, we'd actually been by it several times already, but the plan was to go up this afternoon. Jenna didn't really want to pay to go all the way to the top again (we'd done it a year earlier), so she instead headed off to the Monet Museum (which Sarah and I weren't too hot on after the 3 previous art museums). She of course ended up loving it. Sarah and I, on the other hand, arrived at the Tower to find an outrageous line, and she really wasn't in the mood to stand there for an hour in the cold, so we decided we'd wait until the next morning to try our luck again, and instead went and got tea and delicious pastries from a nearby shop whilst waiting for Jenna.

We met up at the hotel in the early evening, and Jenna and I decided to go check out the Pompidou center, which is a modern art museum in a modern art building. Sarah was pretty much done with museums at this point, so we decided to split off for the evening. I think she did a little shopping and relaxing while we were at the museum. It turned out to be a little beyond our taste in modern art. It isn't our favorite anyway, and the stuff we do like is pretty tame, which most of this was not. It is an extremely cool building (built inside out), and some of the art was really good. Jenna had been wanting to go since last year when we didn't have time, but like a few of the others, we were glad this museum was covered by our pass.

Stay tuned for the next post, which will cover the rest of our time in Paris...